Pastors Pen 4/5/2026

Today we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, commonly known as "Easter Sunday." Over the years I have avoided using the word "Easter" as much as possible, as the term itself is of pagan origin and what most people celebrate as Easter is hardly a religious holiday. I prefer to use "Resurrection Sunday" as it describes best why we even celebrate the day. Easter, to most people is identified with rabbits, eggs and candy. If you learn about the origin of "Easter," I think you might then agree with me that "Good Friday" and "Resurrection Sunday" are better descriptions to use for the most important days on the Christian calendar.

While the word "Easter" is found in Acts 12:4, in our King James Bibles, other bibles correctly translate the word "Passover." For some reason, the translators of the King James Bible used the term 'Easter" when they translated this verse. The word "Easter" is the Greek word PASCHA derived from the Hebrew word PESACH meaning 'Passover.' In reality, the pagan "Easter" celebration had its origin in the Babylonian culture. 2,000 years before Christ the Babylonians were honoring the resurrection of their god, Tammuz, who was brought back from the underworld by his mother/wife, Ishtar (after whom the festival was named). Tammuz, the god of spring vegetation 'died' in the winter and came back to life in the spring. (You can read about the worship of Tammuz in Ezekiel 8:13-18.) Verse 13 says that the women were weeping for Tammuz. We can assume they were grieving over the 'death' of Tammuz during the winter months.

As Ishtar was actually pronounced "Easter" in most Semitic dialects, it became easy to identify the festival as "Easter." Actually, this term could just as easily represent any number of other pagan fertility celebrations of death and resurrection. Easter, as we know it, has come to us through the Anglo-Saxon fertility rites of the goddess Eostre or Ostara. These are all the same festivals, separated only by time and culture. Eggs and rabbits entered the celebration because they represent fertility symbols. The master counterfeiter, (The "god of this world" 2 Cor. 4:4) seeks to counterfeit every aspect of God's plan. It is his plan to draw attention and worship away from the Savior to other trappings of our Christian holidays. (Holy days) We see this not only at the celebration of Jesus' death and resurrection, but at Christmas as well. He seeks to counterfeit all aspects of Christianity, especially the worship of the true Savior!

It is interesting to note that there are absolutely no verses in the Bible that authorize or endorse the keeping of an Easter celebration! The Bible says nothing about Lent, rabbits, eggs or baskets of candy, etc. These are all additions made by the secular world around us. The apostles and the early New Testament Church did not observe Easter, but rather Passover-which was kept on the 14th day of the first month (Nisan) of the Jewish calendar. To honor the Lord's resurrection, they began meeting on the first day of the week Sunday. It soon became known as "The Lord's Day." Acts 20:6-7 refers to the church meeting on the Lord's Day and John makes reference to the "Lord's Day" in Revelation 1:10. Some early Roman historians also make mention of the Christians gathering on Sundays. Today is truly "The Lord's Day." We celebrate His resurrection, knowing full well the promise that He made to all believers; "Because I live, you too shall live!" Hallelujah!