“When Yehovah your Elohim 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 God saying, ‘how did these nations serve their gods, I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship Yehovah your Elohim in that way for every Abomination to 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
This is what “Yehovah” (God’s actual real name) commanded Israel when he brought them into their Promised Land. They were commanded not to worship Him the same way the other Nations worshiped their gods. Yehovah said do not add to his words and he likewise commanded them nor take away from his word. This is a simple, but extremely important foundational truth that only those who truly love God and desire to be in his coming Kingdom must not ever ignore. Sadly, over the centuries this command and message has been lost and/or forgotten.
People do many things today, in his name, because in their Minds it seems right even though “He” never commanded us to do so. One thing many people do today is add to his commands. If you follow this Substack, you know that I've spoken against pagan holidays for some time. Sadly, by and large, the institutional church both encourages and promotes the celebration of many, arguably, pagan holidays and traditions to include Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day and even Halloween. All of these “holy days” have been given and taught to us, not by the commands of our father but, by adopting Traditions from the other nations. We have done exactly what Yehovah commanded us not to do. We are following the example of the other nations and how they served their gods!
Also, please know that the majority of “Christians” who do this, do this unknowingly. They're not openly rebelling against him knowingly is what I'm trying to say. Most of these people have never heard or read the scripture I started this essay with. The truth is that most people who practice these traditions of rebellion today do so unknowingly. And many who do, “feel” (absence of the word “think” deliberate) that because their heart is in the right place, it’s all okay, God understands and will forgive them this little indiscretion. That’s why it is important that they know and are told that they are still being disobedient to the one that they say they love and serve.
Part of the problem may be that they just don't truly know him! The “god” who they have learned of and may NOT necessarily be the same God who created all things. That’s a tough pill for a lot of folks to swallow! But, I would simply argue that the true and living God has not been fully presented to them in a way that gives them a full understanding of who He is. Arguably, a good number of people who profess to be Christians fall into this category. That is why it’s important that you know who Yehovah is and that He does not allow us to worship Him in any way that we please. He especially does not want us serving him in the same way the gentile nations served their pagan gods.
In this present day and age, with so much lawlessness rebellion and with wickedness on the rise, it is wise for all of us to examine the traditions and Customs that we practice in our worship of our Savior and make sure it's what he desires from us and that we’re not just following the customs and traditions taken from the pagan nations that have been “rebranded” as being biblically sound!
Many people reject this type of message and believe they can do whatever they want because their heart is in the right place and they say God knows their heart. What many probably actually do not consider is that while it’s true that Yehovah does know their heart, it's they who actually do not understand their own hearts. They don't understand and/or consider that their heart may be telling Yehovah that “His” words are not as important to them as them doing their own thing.
If we are to be a believer in “Yeshua” (Jesus real “Hebrew” name), the Messiah, then you must have this huge understanding and you will find it in Matthew 7: 13-14 where it says:
“Enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.”
You see the problem is that so many of us have been trying to enter the kingdom of Yahweh through a very wide gate that says that we can continue to go ahead and do what we want and God will accept it because he knows that we love him in our hearts. But, what he told us in his word is that the gate to him is narrow and few will find it because many want to go through that easier broad gate. The thing is, we need to make sure of is that it's not us trying to go through that broad gate which he explicitly said, leads to destruction.
The goal of this essay is to present to you a more narrow gate and path that is in obedience to “The Word of God” and as we walk through it, I hope that you will see that our traditions like Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween and yes, even Easter, are just too big and broad. They do not fit through that narrow gate nor down that narrow path that leads to life that Yeshua spoke of. It's important that if you truly desire to be a part of our father's Kingdom, you need to make sure that you know the truth about Easter and stop celebrating our Lord’s resurrection in the way you may have become accustomed to celebrating it. We are in the End Times. The time is short and this is not a time to play games! This essay will specifically cover the fake “holy day” of Easter and explain why it does not fit on the narrow path to God that leads to life.
Let's begin!
Okay, so let's cover what Easter is so there is no confusion. Dictionary.com defines it as “an annual Christian Festival in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It is the day that Christians remember that our Messiah, Yahshua, rose from the dead and conquered death and now He gives us redemption through his sacrifice. Now, make no mistake, please understand so you don't think I'm trying to get you to be against our Messiah or celebrating his resurrection! This blessed event is miraculous and it should never be forgotten. The resurrection of our Messiah is a foundational part of the faith of a True Believer. But, here's the thing, because it is a foundation of our belief, it is not something that we need to celebrate on one particular day out of the year. Rather, it is something that we should celebrate and remember every day of our Lives. It is something that should be in our remembrance at all times! It’s something we should do “as often” as we can!
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
~ 1 Corinthians 11:26
So, let’s make this clear, I am in no way telling you not to celebrate His resurrection. On the contrary, I'm telling you to celebrate it more. I’m telling you to celebrate it every day. Remember it every day and thank him every day. Believe in him every day! So, let's take a closer look at the celebration of Easter. When Yeshua was crucified and then resurrected, do you know when this happened according to scripture? This happened at the time of Passover. Do you remember what Yahshua was doing with his disciples and what he said the night before he was crucified? He said:
“With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
~ Luke 22:5.
There are many more scriptures like this. I'm just trying to make clear a point that should be fully understood that Yeshua was crucified during the time of Passover. This is important because if we are truly worshiping “the day” of His resurrection, then common sense would tell us that it should always align with the time of Passover! Now Passover, just like Easter, is not held on the same day every year like Christmas is held on December 25th. In order to know when Passover is, the answer is found here where it says:
“These are the Feasts of Yahweh, holy convocations which you shall Proclaim at their appointed time times, on the 14th day of the first month at Twilight is yahweh's Passover and on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh, Seven days you must eat unleavened bread.”
~ Leviticus 23:4-6
This is how “Passover” is set. Remember during those ancient days people didn't have a calendar on their walls that told them the dates like we do today. Complicating matters, the Israelites follow a different calendar than what we follow today. Passover was set according to the moon cycle. The first month on the Hebrew calendar is the month of Nissan. So again, if we're celebrating the resurrection of the Messiah the calculation of the date of Easter should be very similar because he was crucified during the time of Passover. But it’s NOT!
The date of “Easter” was determined by Rome at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. They decided that Easter should be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox according to the Roman “Gregorian” calendar. So let me simplify this by giving you an example. On our Gregorian calendar, we Mark March 21st as the first day of spring. This is what the Spring Equinox is. The first Sunday that comes on the first full moon that comes after the Spring Equinox is how Easter is determined.
Now this can sometimes make Passover and Easter fall during the same times. They also can be held almost a month apart. This year, 2024, the date for Passover is on Monday April 22nd. But, Easter is on Sunday March 31st. I want you to really stop and think about this! How does that make any sense? how can you celebrate the messiah's resurrection almost a full month before the time of his crucifixion? Just by this easy review we can see that something is amiss. If you're worshiping Our Father how Yahshua said we should, which is in spirit and in “truth,” we can see the truth, and the truth is that something is wrong with this date that everyone is choosing to celebrate.
Personally, I think that I could easily stop right here and say that this clear and simple explanation should be all anyone needs in order to stop celebrating this celebration when they do. Put simply, you just can't celebrate the messiah's resurrection almost a month before the time of his crucifixion and believe you're doing so in truth!
But, maybe you need more information in this matter and so we will dig deeper. But while we’re doing that, please ask yourself why would people who say they are worshiping the resurrection of our savior created this holiday to be celebrated on this specific day? Why would they worship this event during a time that has nothing to do with when he actually was killed and 3 Days Later resurrected? Further, just do the math for yourself. If you celebrate Good Friday as the day Messiah was crucified, 3 days later would be Monday. If he was crucified on Friday, Saturday would be one day, Sunday two days Monday makes 3 days. Sorry folks, it just doesn’t add up!
So, if Rome made the determination of when we should celebrate Easter, where did they get it from and why do we even call it Easter? I mean there are so many more questions we could ask as well but, all of this needs to be understood so let's go back further in time, to a time before the Messiah.
When it comes to paganism, all roads lead to Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. Nimrod is the father of paganism. He was worshiped as the sun god and is known by many names. The Hebrews refer to him as Baal or as Moloch. His followers were Baal worshippers and they became associated with idolatry, demon worship, human sacrifice and other occult practices.
Nimrod's mother, and later his wife, talk about sick and twisted, was a woman named Semiramis. The name Semiramis has fallen out of History but, we know of nimrod because he has spoken of many times in scripture, particularly in the non-canonical book of Jasher. But, Semiramis was also worshiped as a goddess and was known by many other names around the ancient world. In Egypt she was worshiped as Isis, in Greece she was Artemis and in Rome she was Diana. She is even mentioned in the bible. In the old Testament she is known as Ashtoreth.
“Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Ashtoreth who eat at Jezebel's table”
~ First Kings 18:19
And in the New Testament, she is known as Diana.
“But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”
~ Acts 19:34
With few minor exceptions in the narratives, all of these Pagan “mother goddesses” from the various mythologies are arguably one in the same and they all go back to Semiramis, the mother and wife of Nimrod. Now, the story of Semiramis goes that after Nimrod died, she became pregnant and being the clever, manipulating woman she was found a way to remain in power. She convinced the people that she slept with no man, that it was the spirit of Nimrod who impregnated her and that she was going to have a, get this, “virgin birth.” So, Nimrod was now going to be a “father god” and Tammuz would become his divine son. Semiramis then transformed herself into the moon goddess by adding the claim that she was divinely created.
She wove the tale that she came down to earth from the moon in a giant egg that landed in the Euphrates River and that she was the moon goddess a.k.a., Madonna a.k.a., Ishtar a.k.a., Semiramis the queen of Babylon. Now let's be clear that this story, whether you want to believe it or not, doesn’t matter. Google it if you like. But, given all of the nonsense people fervently believe today about our ability to change one’s gender, and how climate change is an existential threat to life on the earth, this makes the whole Semiramis narrative all the more believable. People, if they really want to will believe anything. What matters, and what you cannot ignore, is all the other nations throughout ancient history that worshiped a divine feminine, a mother goddess. They worshiped the Queen of Heaven.
And we know this because we see, not just from what was recorded in the Bible but also, from other ancient writings too. From the scriptures we can read that the children gathered wood, the fathers kindled the fire and the woman kneaded dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven and they poured out drink offerings to other gods that provoked God’s anger. That's found in Jeremiah 7:18. The story of Semiramis is the beginning story of the divine feminine, the Moon Goddess, that later was known by many different names in many different cultures. Arguably, today’s climate religion that is going to save “mother earth” from the evil humans who infect it is just another extension of this same old genocidal “mother goddess” cult.
So, the moon goddess has a baby from Nimrod and when the baby was born it was celebrated as Nimrod back from the underworld, the land of the dead. She claimed that her baby was reborn renewed or otherwise the reincarnated Nimrod and his birthday was celebrated on December 25th, but that's a discussion that should be had in regards to Christmas. What you must understand is that all these stories are related and that people have been looking for a promised messianic figure since the beginning of mankind. The people were persuaded by Semiramis to believe that Tammuz, her son, was their savior.
Now, back to Easter. Semiramis, the widow of nimrod and mother of Tammuz came to be represented as a fertility goddess. The original “pagan” festival of Easter was actually a sex orgy that celebrated the return of life via the fertility of Semiramis a.k.a. Ishtar via the conception of Tammuz. Interestingly, the worshippers of the ancient Babylonian religion celebrated the conception, not the birth, of Tammuz on the first Sunday after the full moon that followed the Spring Equinox. They celebrated it by baking cakes to Ishtar, getting drunk, engaging in orgies and prostitution in the temple of Ishtar. Women were required to celebrate the conception of Tammuz by lying down in the temple and having sex with whoever entered. Babies were sacrificed in honor of these pagan gods and their blood was consumed by other worshippers.
Years after this religion became established, Tammuz, who was a skilled hunter like his father Nimrod, was killed by a wild boar while he was on a hunting expedition. Another part of the legend says that after his death, through the power of his mother's tears, Tammuz was resurrected in the form of the new vegetation that appeared on the earth. Again, this was a symbol of fertility. Semiramis then proclaimed a 40-day period of time for mourning each year prior to the anniversary of the death of Tammuz. During this period of mourning, no meat was to be eaten. Worshippers were to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of Baal and Tammuz and to make the sign of a cross on their hearts as they worshipped. This practice later became known as “Lent” in the Roman Catholic church. They also ate sacred cakes with the marking of a “X” or cross on the top. Is a lot of this starting to sound familiar? Wait, there’s more!
Every year on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox a celebration was held. It was “Ishtar's” (Easter) Sunday and, since both are associated with fertility, was celebrated with “eggs” and symbolized with “rabbits.” Semiramis also proclaimed that because Tammuz was killed by pig, that a pig must be sacrificed and eaten on that Sunday feast day. This is what the pagans believed and they celebrated this for thousands of years. Remember, this goes back to before Israel was ever in their promised land and before Yeshua was ever born The pagan world worshiped the resurrection of their son god and the mother goddess was worshiped as the fertility goddess.
Please note that in the 4th century, the Romans were pagans before they allegedly converted en-masse to Christianity. They believed in the same father God, mother goddess, Son of God concept created by ancient Babylon. This was a satanic counterfeit of God’s plan of redemption. They just substituted the names and tried to make us believe that Yehovah is the father God, even though they won't even say his name was really Nimrod. Then they made us believe that Mary is the mother goddess (Semiramis) and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Tammuz). This is called syncretism. The Roman’s already celebrated these pagan festivals before they allegedly “became Christians.” Then they set the date of Easter to the first Sunday of the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. They set this date in accordance with the already known Pagan Festival.
Now syncretism was a clever trick used by the early Roman Catholics! Why? Probably because it happens to work. Just go ahead claim that the old pagan religious festivals and rites of the other people under your rule or recently subjected in your wars are really just misunderstood Christian practices. Then go ahead and Canonize a few of their old long dead shaman witches or wizards and proclaim them saints and then suddenly, presto-change-o, you’ve got loads of new converts and loads of new tax revenue in the form of tithes coming in.
But, for those of you who already knew this story behind the “holiday,” here’s a warning. Simply changing the name from Easter to “Resurrection Sunday” like some traditional institutional churches do does not change the origin of why Easter is celebrated the way it is today. Most people are simply celebrating it because of long standing tradition and because Rome put it on your calendar. It doesn’t matter if you change the name. As a matter of fact, changing the name shows that you know there's something actually wrong with this celebration! Why would you have to to change the name of something if it truly was all about our messiah to begin with, that is, unless it wasn’t and you knew it?
Now let's deal with this too while we’re at it. There is a common misunderstanding in the Christian church that claims that these Christian holidays are actually valid but, they were just hijacked by unbelievers for the purposes of commercialization and making money. You know, like with Santa Claus for Christmas and the Easter Bunny for Easter. That’s arguably only half true. What you need to know about that is this, Satan just found a clever way to sucker in those who do not believe in the Messiah without bringing all the extra religious stuff in with it. He's just bringing in more energy for his false worship.
Next, let's take a look at some of these Customs associated with Easter and where they came from. The first one, Easter eggs. They are the symbol of the rebirth of life in the springtime. Since ancient times, eggs were known to be very prominent as symbols of new life and resurrection. Ishtar's eggs or Easter eggs is in reference to the women's reproduction. This makes sense as Ishtar is the goddess of fertility and a woman's egg is how she reproduces. The Babylonians considered the egg a sacred symbol that represented Ishtar's fertility and new life. The 28-day cycle of the moon and the monthly cycle of a woman coincide with this. But wait, here’s more:
- The Babylonians believed in a fable about a huge egg that fell from heaven into the Euphrates river which hatched Queen Semiramis.
- The Egyptians hung decorated eggs in their temples.
- The Romans used decorated eggs in processions honoring the mother goddess.
- The Druids used the egg as one of their sacred emblems.
- The Chinese and the Persians also used colored eggs for their ancient pagan spring festivals to represent rebirth.
- During the Middle Ages, Europeans collected different colored bird eggs from nests to use as amulets against evil and bring them good fortune.
- The Easter basket used to collect eggs resembles a bird's nest.
- The ancient Babylonian priests would take eggs as symbols of fertility and dye them in the blood of the infants sacrificed to their gods.
So, Easter eggs are a pagan symbol! They have nothing to do with the bible or faith in our heavenly father or the sacrifice of his son to forgive us for our sins. They are not biblical! But, do you know how many churches have Easter egg hunts? Lots of them! Why is that?
Just think about this, if you're dealing with Easter eggs and Easter egg hunts, you are, knowingly or not, participating in an ancient pagan culture that dealt in blood sacrifice, abortion and worship of the mother goddess Ishtar. Arguably, there is nothing about Easter or Easter eggs that is harmless. It just has been marketed to us in this way. I mean really just stop and think about it why are people painting eggs? It makes no sense when you actually stop and think about it. I mean what do you think people are actually doing and why and where did this strange practice come from?
Next, the Easter Bunny! The funny thing is that the Easter Bunny is often associated with Easter eggs, but ironically rabbits do not lay eggs. The rabbit or hair, one of the most fertile animals on earth, is just another symbol of fertility. Easter bunnies are simply a fertility symbol indirectly referencing the mother goddess. Even many of those who aren’t followers of Yeshua know this. For example, many years ago, showing how old I am, I remember a Saturday Night Live episode hosted by actor John Larroquette of hit comedy series “Night Court” fame where they opened the show with skit pretending to be the NBC Network’s Pagan Easter Special. The skit focused on Easter eggs and the Easter bunny as symbols of pagan sex rituals. It received a lot of criticism at the time but today, this sort of thing would be no doubt praised for it’s artistic portrayal of the culture.
Eating ham is also a very common thing for people celebrating Easter. I know it was in my family and many others where I was raised in the American Midwest. Now, seeing that the Father had deemed pork to be unclean, one could argue that eating ham for the Easter is pretty hypocritical for anyone trying to follow Torah. But many think that a traditional ham dinner on Easter doesn’t dishonor God. That's both ridiculous and hypocritical. Ask anybody why they do this they probably will tell you they don't know or that it's just a harmless tradition. But now you know that this was prescribed by the Moon Goddess Semiramis to honor the memory of Tammuz who was killed by a wild boar.
Hot Cross Buns is another “Easter tradition” rooted in Pagan ritual. It was also common for pagans to bake cakes and offer them to the Queen of Heaven on the Friday before the Ishtar Festival. Making cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven, as previously noted, was expressly spoken against in scripture. You can Google all this yourself and look all this up on the internet. It's not very hard to find. With all this history available at our fingertips that plainly reveals the pagan origins of Easter, why don’t the followers of Yeshua completely reject it as the day to celebrate His resurrection?
The only reason we recognize this day as a “Holy day” is because of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. As I previously stated, the Roman Catholic church had a practice of incorporating pagan festivals into church practice, by placing Christian names over them and calling them Christian. This was done to make Christianity more acceptable and familiar to Heathen worshippers whom the church was trying to attract. They completely ignored the scripture I used from the book of Deuteronomy at the start of this essay.
The worst part of all of that is this. While everyone in our Christian churches today believe that they are honoring our father by practicing these traditions, they are actually doing the very thing that our father said he hates! Do you know what Yahweh did to Israel when they did this,? He didn't give them a pass because he knew they meant well. He disowned them, cursed them, scattered them and sent them into exile. And now people who claim they believe the Bible do these same practices with pride and claim they are showing our father love. The problem is, they clearly aren't reading their Bibles. Yehovah, our father, wants his children not to have any dealings with the ways of the pagans and how they worship their gods.
He never wanted the children of Israel to walk in the ways of the pagans then and he doesn’t want us walking in them now. We are to be set apart from them. How can we be set apart if we're engaging in their type of worship? How can we claim that we’re worshiping Yehovah the way they worship their gods when he expressly spoke against doing exactly that! The “holy day” of Easter a.k.a. “Ishtar” is intermingled with themes of fertility, renewal, a descent into darkness, and the Triumph of light over darkness. This is what pagans were celebrating. This was the day when pagans celebrate the return of the sun because of the Fertile Moon Goddess Semiramis conceived Tammuz. By participating in this day you are in effect, celebrating Satan's rebellion against Yehovah.
In the end, everyone can do what they want to do. But, you should at least know and understand where all this comes from. And though I am quite positive that there will be people who will ignore many of these facts and who will choose to continue to believe that because their “motives are pure,” they are actually honoring God in their worship on Easter Sunday. Please know you are not. This day, Easter Sunday, just like Christmas, is a not a day to worship or honor our Father. Our Father gets no glory from this and arguably, we are provoking him to anger. We cannot continue to choose to worship him whatever way we desire simply because we feel we're coming from a genuinely sincere place. In truth, you're coming from a place of rebellion because you're not taking the time to read about him, to study his ways and know about him. He never told us that he accepts us in this way. I think that it’s clear that He wants us to enter into fellowship with him through the narrow gate and follow that narrow way in our worship of him.
If you want to recognize a day that he specifically spoke about celebrating, that would be Passover! Yeshua himself specifically celebrated this day. He specifically spoke about this day as a great day to remember but sadly, the Christian Church doesn't remember this day. Why do you think that is? I think that this has a lot to do with replacement theology where some teach that Yehovah has rejected Israel and is doing his work on earth through the Christian Church and that we have replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. We have NOT!
Nothing could be further from the truth! The ecclesia or “assembly” of non-Jewish believers in Yeshua as our Messiah have NOT replaced anybody. We are the wild olive branch that has been grafted in. Israel is still the apple of God’s eye as symbolized in scripture by the Olive Tree, God still loves them and as he promised, he will cause them to return to him in his good time. We have NOT replaced them, we have been grafted in to them. We should be as one in our worship of the father with them.
True believers need to rediscover the Passover and worship Yeshua as our Passover Lamb. At Passover, not Easter, we should assemble together and partake in eating of his bread which is his body and drink of wine which represents his blood that he shed for us. The word actually speaks about celebrating Passover and says nothing about celebrating Easter. Sadly, the church today does everything completely backwards.
I will end this with a sincere warning that we must all get your houses in order. Those who have had our eyes opened to these mysteries have all, at one time or another, been deceived. We celebrated these pagan holidays unknowingly in the past. The thing that stops many from receiving this kind of message in the way it is intended is pride. Many people do not want to consider the possibility that they have been doing it all wrong for all these many years and instead of praying about this and seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance on it, they instantly reject it because it doesn't fit their pre-conceived theological paradigm.
But, time is not on our side right now! Our father is calling his children out. He's looking for the wheat amongst the tares. Which one are you? For some, this truly might be our last chance to make
the right decision. That is why I wrote this. Don't let anyone cheat you through philosophy or empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to our Messiah. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim.
There was a time once when we all walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. But now, we need to present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Again, the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, for the father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship both in spirit and in truth. We all need to repent of our mistakes and do what is right. Today, and from this day forward, let us all enter through the narrow gate and walk the narrow path toward life everlasting.
Amen.