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Says Hislop: "The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter,
in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish
[and Protestant] Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter. It was called
Pascha, or the Passover, and ... was very early observed by many professing Christians .... That
festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified .... That
festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent" (The Two Babylons, p. 104).

Where Did We Get Lent?

"Howbeit you should know," wrote Johannes Cassianus (John Cassian) in the fifth century,
"that as long as the primitive church retained its perfection unbroken, this observance of Lent did
not exist" (First Conference Abbot Theonas, chapter 30).

Jesus observed no Lent. The apostles and the early true Church of God observed no Lenten
season. Then how did this observance originate?

"The forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshipers of the
Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, in the spring of the year, is still observed by the
Yezidis or pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters,
the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans .... Such a
Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt ..." (The Two Babylons, pp. 104, 105). In fact this Egyp-
tian Lent of forty days was observed expressly in honor of Osiris, also known as Adonis in Syria
and Tammuz in Babylonia (Sabean Researches, by John Landseer, pp. 111, 112).

Do you realize what has happened? God Almighty commanded His people to observe the
Passover forever! (Ex. 12:24.) This command was given while the Israelites were still in Egypt,
prior to the Old Covenant, or the Law of Moses! It pictured, before the crucifixion, Christ's death
for the remission of our sins, as a type looking forward to it. At His last Passover, Jesus changed
the emblems used from the blood of a lamb and eating its roasted body to the bread and wine.

Jesus did not abolish Passover -- He merely changed the emblems, or symbols used. All
the apostles of Christ and true Christians of the first century true Church observed it on the 14th
day of the first month of the sacred calendar [after sunset -- the 15th]. It is now a memorial of
Christ's death, reaffirming, year by year on its anniversary, the true Christian's faith in the blood of
Christ for the remission of his sins, and the broken body of Christ for his physical healing.

But what has happened? Do you realize it? All Western nations have been deceived into
dropping the festival God ordained forever to commemorate the death of the true Savior for our
sins, and substituting in its place the pagan festival in commemoration of the counterfeit "savior"
and mediator Baal, the sun god, named after the mythical Ishtar, his wife -- actually none other than
the ancient Semiramis, who palmed herself off as the wife of the sun god, the idolatrous "queen of
heaven."

This is not Christian! It is pagan to the core!

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