Pod Prep: 4-12-19
A Deeper Understanding Of Easter Is Essential
THE NAME EASTER IS THE ANGLICIZED WORD 'ISHTAR OR ASTARTE'
Astarte is mentioned in the Bible a number of times and is prominent in ancient history. Astarte was pictured as a female goddess who was the consort of various pagan gods, Baal for example. ASTARTE HAD VARIED NAMES IN VARIOUS CULTURES. ONE NAME WAS ISHTAR. That name was anglicized into English as Easter. In Germany and England of old, a goddess of spring and renewal was called Eostre. All these led to our word Easter in English. The goddess was honored in ancient societies in connection with love, medicine and fertility and beauty. Ancient naked figurines of the goddess often show her holding a child as a mother goddess. She was a major deity in most ancient cultures. Sex and religion are two very powerful emotional forces for most people; therefore the goddess of fertility and sex was a key part of most pagan activities. The plural name for various Astarte cults was Ashtaroth and it is used in the Bible in a derogatory manner.
1 Kings 11:4-6 NKJV 4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not fully follow the LORD, as did his father David.
Why was God so opposed to paganism including the female consort of the pagans, Astarte? Since ancient times long before the Bible, people have been celebrating the equinoxes and the solstice as sacred time. Based on sun light, it is the time when winter ends and springs starts. Pagans based their lives on patterns of the sun and moon. Spring festivals with the theme of new life, fertility and relief from the cold were important to the pagans.
2 Kings 17:16-17 NKJV 16 So they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the hosts of heaven, and served Baal. 17 And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.
The church that the Apostles started was anything but pagan and kept the Lord's Supper or last meal before His death as the Passover Lamb for all mankind. This last meal based on the Biblical Holy Days occurred on the evening portion of the Passover day the 14th of Nissan .
John 1:29 NKJV 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 13:1-3 NKJV 1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God.
If the Apostles taught the church to continue keeping the Biblical Holy Days how did Easter, which the Romans kept as the day to worship Astarte come about?
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE QUARTODECIMAN CONTROVERSY
The term refers to when to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Should a church continue to celebrate the resurrection on the Hebrew calendar date of the fourteenth of Nissan, or on the Easter date. Quartodeciman is Latin for the fourteenth. Critics called keeping the Biblical Passover dates and Unleavened Bread, Judaizing. Churches in the west therefore switched to the pagan date that happened to coincide with Astarte's date. A dispute arose over determination of the date between churches of the West and East. Remember the Old Testament is God's Word not the words of the Jews. They were the people assigned to preserve God's words - not their words but God's testimony. The Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament, asserts this point.
Acts 24:14 NKJV 14 "But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.
We believe those who pushed out the Holy Days of God were wrong, or deceived. So instead of the days God had set aside for celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus the western churches including Rome, celebrated Easter on the first day of the week, Sunday. They eventually forced the eastern churches to comply, and by the end of the second century very few churches still kept the Biblical Passover date. It was a very bitter dispute eventually backed up by the power of Rome. Note that the churches that Paul established in the gentile world kept the Biblical dates.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 KJV 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: {is sacrificed; or, is slain} 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. {the feast: or, holyday}
One of the practices of pagan cultures like the Roman Empire, included syncretizing other deities into their own. They blended them together for more public acceptance. Blending the resurrection of Jesus with worship of Astarte would allow for more acceptance. They could blend the sun rise worship service with the resurrection of Jesus for ease of acceptance. In 325 AD the first major church council, called the council of Nicea, determined that Easter should fall on the Sunday after the full moon spring equinox and not on the movable biblical feast date for the Passover.
HOW TO GAIN THE MOST SPIRITUALLY FROM THE RESURRECTION SEASON
God inspired Jeremiah to condemn the 'queen of heaven' why? What was God warning the Kingdom of Judah about? Her cult has other names like Aphrodite's. Even today the concept has some spiritual influence. The modern Wicca energy chant goes “Isis, Astarte, Diana...”.
Jeremiah 7:17-18 NKJV 17 "Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.
It is believed that the 'queen of heaven is Astarte. Some of the Hebrew leaders saw this goddess as a female demon of lust. Obviously that is not how most people see Easter. Easter is better than the pure paganism of Astarte which probably was all about sex lust and fertility. It is clearly better that the western world has turned away from pure paganism. Yet can we get the full spiritual benefit from the spring season without God's days? Are there good and bad spiritual influences around the religious customs we celebrate? Note Paul's warning to the Corinthians who knew that idols were nothing.
1 Corinthians 10:19-20 NKJV 19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
Paul is warning that hanging around the pagan temples maybe deleterious to them spiritually even though the pagan gods are made up and are nothing. Our celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus is essential for us spiritually as we use the Holy Days found in the Bible. The author of the New Testament Paul, also knew this profound spiritual truth.
Acts 20:6 NKJV 6 But we sailed away from Philippe after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.
Clearly Paul spent the Days of Unleavened Bread with the positive church in Phillippi. If these biblical days had been abandoned, the Apostle would not mention them or consider them in his travel plans.
1 Corinthians 11:23 NKJV 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
What night in the calendar did Christ and his disciples celebrate their final supper? It was the 14 of Nissan, the Passover night, and Jesus was crucified during the day time portion, remembering that God begins the 24 hour day in the evening. Christ is the real spiritual Passover Lamb. This knowledge is spiritually essential for us. It lines us up with the true God while other compromise dates fail to achieve this spiritual goal. See Luke 22:15,Matt 26:17,Mark 14:12 and John 13:1-3.
