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The Origin of “Easter”

By Jim Staley

In the ancient heathen world there were gods and goddesses for everything. There were gods for the sun, moon, trees, animals, love, and so on. And as Paul found out, there was even a god called the “unknown god”, just in case they missed any. Some of these gods were at one time real human beings and after death were glorified to the status of a god or goddess. The people did not necessarily worship the sun or the moon but the god that was “in charge” of the sun or the moon, etc… Even the great Caesars were given god-like status even while some were still alive!

The greatest of all of the gods throughout all of history and all civilizations was virtually always the “sun-god”. And the first god worshipped as the god of the sun was Nimrod, the very same Nimrod from the book of Genesis. And from the book of Genesis we learn that Nimrod was a great grandson of Noah, an incredible hunter and became a mighty king on the earth. Genesis also records for us in chapter 10 that he was responsible for building the kingdoms of Babel and Nineveh along with many other cities.  But his most famous accomplishment was the “brilliant” idea to build a “tower whose top would reach the heavens”. This in turn provoked the LORD to come down out of heaven to confuse their language and scatter them over the face of the earth. This infamous tower became known as the “Tower of Babel”. Nimrod was said to be the most powerful ruler of all time and when he died, Babylonian legend says that he ascended into the heavens and he became the sun-god.  The name that the people of his time would call him would be “Baal” which means “lord”. The wife that he left behind was named Semiramis, who would now become the “Queen of Heaven” since she was the wife of the sun-god Baal.

Years later Semiramis became pregnant. She declared that she had become pregnant by the rays of the sun of her deceased husband, Nimrod (Baal), and nine months later she gave birth to a son in which she gave the name “Tammuz”.  Because of the god-like status of his late father Nimord, baby Tammuz was quickly haled to be the reincarnation of his father Nimrod. Tammuz, like his father, also became a mighty hunter on the earth.  But, when he was forty years of age, he was killed by a wild boar on one of his hunting expeditions.  Because he was revered to be the reincarnated sun-god, his death brought great despair upon the people of Babel.  So, they set aside forty days of weeping and fasting for Tammuz each year in the Spring to commemorate each year that he was alive. (This tradition has been passed down through the ages to the church and is where we get the forty days of fasting before Easter Sunday.  This is where the Catholic original tradition of “Lent” came from until Catholic leadership changed the origination to the 40 days of fasting that Jesus did in the wilderness.)  After the forty days of weeping, they would kill a wild boar (getting back at the boar that killed Tammuz) and eat the ham on the first Sunday after the Spring Equinox (This is where the tradition of eating ham on Easter Sunday came from).  Also as a side note, one of the ancient statues of Mary holding baby Jesus in the Vatican is actually a REAL statue of Semiramis holding baby Tammuz!  The Catholic Church just changed the names to Mary and Jesus!
read the rest of the article here….

~Blessings ~ Jim

Tags: crucifixion, easter, passover, wednesday death

Good Friday is a Myth;
Jesus died on a Wednesday!!

by Roy A. Reinhold

I was quite blown away recently to hear Hal Lindsey state on his national radio program that he has come to believe that the scriptures show a Wednesday crucifixion. Perhaps you ought to examine the evidence and decide for yourself; be like the Bereans who were complimented in scriptures for examining the teaching of Paul in light of the scriptures to see if it was so. There is clear, concrete evidence in the scriptures for a Wednesday crucifixion; you be the judge.

DAYS AND 3 NIGHTS IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH

One of the most common questions asked by new Christians is, “How could Jesus have been in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights if He died on a Friday afternoon and rose before sunrise on a Sunday?” Most Christians duck the question, since at most they can only come up with one day and two nights (Friday nighttime, Saturday daytime, and Saturday nighttime in our measure of days). If they add in the Friday daytime they get two periods of daytime, even though Jesus would have died in the late afternoon on a Friday. This late afternoon death is consistent with the Passover lamb being killed between the two evenings of Jewish teaching. The lamb was killed between 3 and 6 PM on the afternoon of the 14th of Abib/Nisan and prepared, because the 15th was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was an annual Sabbath observance (the first and last days of Unleavened Bread were annual Sabbaths in addition to the normal weekly Sabbaths). This search of the Word is important, not because it affects salvation, but because it answers the questions posed on whether Jesus kept His Word, and whether the Bible is true in this matter. A legitimate concern and question for all Christians!!

read more here 

This is a really interesting article written by Roy Reinhold - check it out!

~Jim~

Tags: crucifixion, easter, passover, wednesday death

Is that Truth or Tradition?

The concept of salvation is about as diverse as there are denominations.  The reasons for this are because there are so many scriptures that speak to the subject from so many angles and so many people looking at the subject from their own perspective as well as their own bias.  This complicates the issue drastically, as most of us do not actually pull from the scripture exegetically what it says from the authors intended point of view, but we find the scriptures that fit our viewpoint and then read into them what we already believe. 

The belief that one is saved by “asking Jesus to come into their heart” is no exception.  In my opinion, the origin of this doctrine comes straight out of early 3^rd and 4^th century Roman Catholic thinking.  Much of the doctrine we have today can be attributed to those two centuries. Short cuts in almost every area of the early Christian doctrines were taken for the purpose of making it easier for the pagan world to convert to Christianity.  I believe that this over simplified statement of “asking Jesus to come into our hearts” is a remnant of that early compromised way of thinking.  Read more…. 

Jim

Passion for Truth  

History of the Bible: How The Bible Came To Us

By Wesley Ringer

Introduction on the Bible

Why should we have some understanding of how the Bible came to us?
Young children often think that milk comes in cartons from the grocery store. As they grow up they learn that milk comes from cows on the farm. Likewise many Christians have become so used to having Bibles that they have bought at a book store that they have almost no knowledge of where the present English translations of the Bible came from.

Understanding how the Bible came to us gives us a confident foundation for our faith in the reliability the Bible. Evidence presented in a criminal case must be shown to have been protected by a proper chain of custody from being tampered with.

We will be able to answer to critics when they claim that the New Testament contains 200,000 errors. We will have some understanding of why the newer translations such as the NIV and NASV differ from the King James Versions at various points.

read more of this article at our website - Passion for Truth Ministries

Jim