Acts 12:1-4 "Easter” & Christ Resurrection

Acts 12:1-4 “EASTER” & CHRIST RESURRECTION 4-23-11

Today I want to talk for a few minutes on the subject of “EASTER.” Let me say before we began that I’m not trying to cause it to rain on any ones Easter parade, but I’m aware of the fact that most people are not aware that this word EASTER comes from pagan religions, there are even Christians that have never thought twice about it.

Easter was not celebrated as a so called Christian holiday until after the "Catholic Nicene council" was convened in 325 AD.

Most of us have been brought up from childhood hearing about Easter, our parents that raised us in a Christian environment talked about Easter, and their parents, and their parents, that’s the way most Americans are and were raised.

Our little children at this time each year hide what they have come to know as Easter eggs that have been boiled and dyed by their parents. I’ll say something about the Easter eggs in a few minuets.

As Christians would never knowingly even consider belittling the RESURRECTION of Christ, but most of us have never gave very much thought as to why “THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST SHOULD BE THOUGHT OF IN CONNECTION TO EASTER”, so I want to point out a few reasons that EASTER is not a good word to use at this most Holy occasion as we remember Christ resurrection.

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The word “EASTER” is found one time in our 1611 King James Bible and not any other of the so called Bibles, and let me say that it was intentionally mistranslated from the Greek word pascha, which in reality should have been Passover. It was correctly translated Passover in 28 other locations in the KJV New Testament, but in our text it was put there as EASTER for the specific purpose to inform us that King Herod was a pagan and he was going to wait for the pagan holiday “Ishtar” EASTER to pass, he certainly was not a Christian.

Easter Sunday is said to be the most important religious holiday of what claims to be Christianity, yet the holiday does not have its origin from the teachings of Christ and his apostles, or anywhere else in the Holy Bible.

Ø Listen as I read today’s text found in Acts 12:1-4

1Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. 2And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3And because he saw it pleased the Jews; he proceeded further to take Peter also.

(Then were the days of unleavened bread.)**(This is very important) this means that (PASSOVER) was the day before.---the days of “unleavened bread always begun the day after Passover and last for 7 days, so when Herod put Peter in jail Passover had passed and now he was going to wait until the pagan holiday ISHTAR, EASTER was over and then kill Peter.

4And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions (16) of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

~~~~Not intending after PASSOVER to bring him forth to the people, but after their pagan celebration of EASTER was over.

The Herod mentioned in this chapter is Herod Agrippa I. Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great and his first wife named Mariamne. This Mariamne was a Hasmonean princess and therefore provided the tie between Herod and the Jews. So this Agrippa enjoyed unusual popularity among the Jews.

Easter is steeped in the Babylonian Mysteries, the single most evil idolatrous system ever invented by Satan! All throughout the prophetic Scriptures, we see God declaring His final judgment upon wicked Babylon! Yet, every year, Christian pastors intone "Easter" as though it were Christian.

But many Independent Baptist preachers have begun referring to this day celebrating Jesus’ resurrection as "Resurrection Sunday", in order to separate the day from the pagan celebration.

ISHTAR, called EASTER today, was and is a Pagan holiday. This holiday was celebrated for thousands of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Easter was a religious celebration to the Pagan "Queen of Heaven", the Mother of life or the Goddess Ishtar, the Goddess of fertility.

In Old Testament celebrations in apostate Israel, we see women angering God because they baked these type of cakes to offer them in worship to the Queen of Heaven.

Jeremiah 44:15-19 Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, 16As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.