Easter

Easter

All over the world people celebrate Easter by coloring eggs, hiding baskets, and waiting for the Easter bunny. And of course the professing church remembers the Resurrection of Christ on this day.

But is there anything wrong with this holiday?

Let's begin by asking a simple question - What does the name “Easter” mean?

The name “Easter” is actually derived from the name of a pagan goddess of Teutonic (German or Northern European), or possibly Anglo-Saxon, origin.
She was known as Eostre, Eastre, Ostern, and many other names, and was believed to be the Great Mother goddess of fertility and sunrise.
Her festival was celebrated at the time of the spring equinox. While some may argue that no such goddess existed, their claims have no support. The Venerable Bede, a highly notable historian, as well as others, including Jacob Grimm (of the Brothers Grimm fame) attested to her certainty. People did worship this goddess and various cults and festivals sprung up in her name.

There have been many goddesses of spring throughout time. Here are just a few examples.

Ashtoreth of ancient Israel Ishtar of Assyria Isis from Egypt and beyond Astarte of ancient Greece Kali from India Ostara from the Norse Aphrodite from Cyprus as well as many others.

If you mention any of this to Christians, most will tell you that it’s not wrong if we use the name of a goddess or symbols of fertility in celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. Most will say something like this: “Well I don’t worship easter, I think about Jesus on that day.” While that may be true to many people, we have to realize that it’s not what‘s right in our eyes, but what’s right in the Lord‘s eyes. He does know our hearts, but He also has a standard that He wants us to walk in - His Word. I do believe that He is merciful to us when we don’t always realize the truth, but most of the time we are without excuse and simply want to follow our own flesh rather than the Spirit of the Lord. If we’re honest with ourselves, we can see how absurd it is to say that "God doesn’t care whether or not I use pagan things to worship Him because I love Him and that’s all that matters". If we truly love Him, then we will obey His commandments and abstain from traditions and practices that are contrary to the Scriptures.

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." 1 John 5:3

Let’s see what the Lord says in His Word.

“And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.” Exodus 23:13

“And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things.” Deuteronomy 12:3-4

“For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more.” Hosea 2:17

“’It shall be in that day’, says the LORD of hosts, ‘that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.’” Zechariah 13:2

*Notice that the Lord identifies the names of idols with the [false] prophets and the unclean spirit.

It would seem that God doesn’t want the names of pagan idols to even be mentioned from our mouths in accordance with worship of Him. It's a very serious thing to God and He specifically does not want us to worship Him using those kinds of things!