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The Plain Truth About
Easter!
The Resurrection was not on Easter Sunday! Easter is not a
Christian name, but the title of the idolatrous "queen of heaven."
Here's an explanation of the true origin and meaning of Lent,
Easter eggs, and sunrise services!
Herbert W. Armstrong
WHY DO you believe the things you believe, do the things you do?
The chances are you never stopped to ask yourself that question. You have been taught
since childhood to accept Easter as the chief of the Christian holidays.
You have supposed it is part of the true Christian religion to observe Lent, "Holy Week,"
"Good Friday," to buy hot cross buns at the bakery, to have colored Easter eggs, to dress up and go
to church Easter Sunday -- perhaps to attend an Easter sunrise service!
Because of the "sheep" instinct in humans, most of us believe a lot of things that are not
true. Most of us do a lot of things that are wrong, supposing these things to be right, or even sacred!
Ishtar the Pagan Goddess
What is the meaning of the name "Easter"? You have been led to suppose the word means
"resurrection of Christ." For 1600 years the Western world has been taught that Christ rose from
the dead on Sunday morning. But that is merely one of the fables the Apostle Paul warned readers
of the New Testament to expect. He rose from the dead on the morning of "the first day of the
week." We really don't know what day the resurrection occurred on in the Gregorian calendar we
keep today -- it could have been any day of the week! (Read our article: Have We Been Observ-
ing the Sabbath At the Wrong Time All These Years?).
The name "Easter," which is marry the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the
ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess Ishtar, comes to us from old Teutonic mythology where
it is known as Ostern. The Phoenician name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the sun
god, whose worship is denounced by the Almighty in the Bible as the most abominable of all pa-
gan idolatry.
Look up the word "Easter" in Webster's Dictionary. You will find it clearly reveals the
pagan origin of the name.
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