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This spring, billions of people will memorialize Jesus Christ's resurrection by observing the ancient rite of Easter. Although the festival's name and seasonal observance pre-date Christianity, and the Easter Sunday observance does not even correspond to the actual day of Christ's resurrection, most professing Christians assume that the non-Christian festival has now been "Christianized" into something of which Jesus Christ would approve.

Sadly, most of us just "grew up" in Protestant churches—or in Catholicism—and basically took for granted all that we were taught about God, Christ and religion. Very few people usually bother—even after reaching adulthood—to actually study and genuinely prove WHY they believe what they believe. It just seems easier to "follow the crowd" and go along with whatever we have been taught.

The origins of pre-Christian Easter festivals in pagan cultures are well known in history. In the ancient world, some of the greatest female deities were the various incarnations of the great fertility goddesses known as Ishtar (Babylonian), Astarte (Phoenician), Atargatis (Philistine), Ashtoreth (Hebrew), Eastre (Anglo-Saxon), Ostara (German) and Aphrodite (Greek).

These goddesses are regarded as essentially the same deity, due to the similarities of their mythologies, worship, names and festivals. These factors are what define a deity as its worship moves between cultures. The primary fertility festivals for these deities (and their associated male consorts) were in the spring—a time of renewal and birth.

Here is what Paul told the Christians at Corinth: "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 [the evening of the beginning of Nisan 14] took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).

this practice of observing the Christian Passover did not die out, but continues today as a faithful observance by true Christians every spring, in the evening at the beginning of Nisan 14.



(Excerpted from Tomorrow's World magazine: Easter or Passover: Which is Christian? and The Holy Days: God's Master Plan .)