The pagan origins of Easter / Ishtar

We as followers of Yeshua Ha Meshach believe that, Yeshua rose from the dead on the Biblical Feast of First Fruits. First Fruits is the first day of the week, Sunday, during the week of Unleavened Bread. That is why Yeshua is referred to as, First Fruits.

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”1Cor. 15:20 [see also: I Cor 15:20; Rev 14:4]

The fact that Easter sometime falls close to the Biblical Holiday of Passover and Unleavened Bread; which means it sometimes falls close to the anniversary of the crucifixion and resurrection of Messiah, is completely coincidental. We as Followers of Yeshua must stop living a compromised faith that is comfortable mixing our faith in God with pagan ritual.

However, this is not a new problem exclusive to The Church! It is an age old problem seen recorded throughout the Old Testament.

Rachael stole the kitchen gods from her father’s home.

Israelites in the desert

All through Judges and Kings

Manassas made his children pass through the fire of Molech

“And Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.” 1Kings 18:21

All paganism has its roots in Babylon. She is the source for all corruptions, false religions, and false teachings. There is no religion on earth that cannot be traced to Babylon. These Mystery Religions are the foundation of all other apostasies.

This holiday, Easter, takes its name from the Babylonian queen of heaven, a fertility goddess, Astarte or Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Cybele, Rhea, she is Beltis, the queen of heaven, she is the ubiquitous fertility/ mother goddess. No matter what her name she is always the same. She is frequently depicted as a woman with a turret or castle on her head. She is the Goddess of Fortresses mentioned in Dan. 11:38, “He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these; a god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts”.

The worship of Astarte included eggs, and the baking of buns having marks on them, i.e. hot crossed buns. One can find these painted or decorated eggs universally in all paganism. In the Hindu fables, celebrations use eggs with a golden color. The people of Japan make their sacred eggs brazen and in China they dye or paint eggs used in sacred festivals, just as we do.

Goddess of Fortresses Cybele

The Goddess of Fortresses – Cybele

Cybele was the goddess of nature and fertility. Because Cybele presided over mountains and fortresses, her crown was in the form of a city wall. The cult of Cybele was directed by eunuch priests called Corybantes, who led the faithful in orgiastic rites accompanied by wild cries and the frenzied music of flutes, drums, and cymbals. Her annual spring festival celebrated the death and resurrection of her beloved Attis. Her Greek mythology counterpart was Rhea.”

Cybele: by Dr Anthony E. Smart

The god of fortresses

“Also known as Kybele and Magna Mater and the Mother of the Gods, the worship of this goddess spread throughout the Roman Empire. Originally Phrygian, she was a goddess of caverns, of the Earth in its primitive state; worshipped on mountain tops. She ruled over wild beasts, and was also a bee goddess. Her festival came first on the Roman calendar. Along with her consort, the vegetation god Attis, Cybele was worshipped in wild, emotional, bloody, orgiastic, cathartic ceremonies.

“The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life. Many women who are rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendants. But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite, with crowns of cord on their heads; there is a great multitude of women coming and going; passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, “I invite you in the name of Mylitta” (that is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite). It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfill the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus.”

Herodotus, 484 to 425 B.C. The Histories 1.199, tr A.D. Godley [1920]

The goddess names and temples are long gone. Her memory and worship have been suppressed. But her teachings live on. Semiramis was the Babylonian wife of an Assyrian king Ahamshi-Adad VII. He or his son Adad-nirari [one of whom may have been Nimrod of the Bible] has become part of the mother goddess. The memory of or the amalgamation of Semiramis can be found in the image of Mother and child once known as i.e. Isis and Horus, Cybele and Deoius, and Fortuna and Jupitor-puer and can today be seen in many cultures as mother earth, Hindu Shakti, and even venerated as the virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.

Semiramis was also the first wall builder; hence the turret on her head. At first glance wall building sounds like a good idea. Walls keep out the wild beast and the barbarians. At least that is the propaganda used to encourage a populace to build one. However, what it really does is control the populace. Everybody and everything coming in or going out of the wall or city can now be recorded and taxed. Any person with different ideas can be coerced into submission. Eventually there is a lack of freedom. Your protection has now become your prison.

Today we may not have a physical wall around each of our cities but the teaching of the goddess of fortresses is that you need to be protected. That concept has been interpreted as those evil bankers, businessmen, doctors and insurance companies. Lady fortress wants your freedom, and your liberty; just as Satan wants your soul. In return she will protect you from too much wealth and wrong thinking, too much religion, and freedom of expression but in return she will allow you to have all of the sexual, moral, and ethical deviancy you could possibly want.

The children of Israel were repeatedly told to have nothing to do with this goddess. Yet they pursued her worship with great zeal; to the point where her prostitutes were in the temple in Jerusalem. “….and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” 1Kings 14:24 [see also: I Kings 15:12, 22:46, 23:7; Hos 4:14

So serious is the threat of paganism that even national treasures should be destroyed if they lead to idolatry. 2 Kings 18:4 “He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had burned incense to it; it was called Nehushtan.”

The prophet Jeremiah spoke out against this queen of heaven, . “…The LORD could no longer bear your evil doings and the abominations which you committed; therefore your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. It is because you burned incense, and because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies, that this evil has befallen you, as at this day…”Jer. 7:18-27.

If God did not spare Judah for this provocation, do you think He will spare the Church?

In the United States, our founding fathers did not give us lady fortress; they left the old world to escape that prison. Their ideas were founded on Biblical truths and personified in Lady Liberty and Lady Justice. Oh for the Church to realize her battle must start from within to eradicate the pagan tendrils that have invaded her faith.

But the Church is clueless; she doesn’t realize that she has been taught a watered down version of the same age old paganism. It has been stripped down leaving nothing but colored eggs and chocolate bunnies. And who could object to Madonna and son?

Because we do not seek the truth, we are easy prey to the liars. Truth will set you free while lies will ensnare, enslave and confuse.

The Church leaders do not teach 2 Tim. 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. Try asking your spiritual leader if they can read Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic? Then ask yourself, would you go to a doctor who couldn’t name the bones of your body? Why sit under a teacher who can only read an interpretation of what the passage might mean?

“Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;…” Rev. 18:4

The King is Coming— whether physical or spiritual, a tide of change is coming. He taught that when He returned,He would require an accounting of His servants. Repent! We may have been taught incorrectly but only we can repent for ourselves and only we will be held responsible for the state or our heart, of our faith, and of our practices.