We enjoy the free services of Google by using this blog. However, given Google's subliminal leftist agenda (or not so subliminal), I am going to start using Bing for all my web searches. I suggest you do the same.
I have noticed that Google likes to illustrate fun little pictures on its home search page. I remember Sesame Street on its anniversary and MLK on his day etc. Yesterday, arguably the most important day on the calendar for Christians, a picture of Cesar Chavez was shown.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/04/01/google-creates-controversy-with-cesar-chavez-doodle/
I am going to try to boycott as many Google services as I can. I will start using Bing for my random searches.
Happy Easter!
I've been using Bing for a while now. I think it works better than Google.
ReplyDeleteYeah, google is champions left wing agendas. Google is also in bed with the government. Although I don't see how google choosing to honor a Chavez on what is supposed to be the most sacred day of Christianity is any different than mocking Christianity in movies like "Life of Brian".
ReplyDeleteI am dumbfounded as to why you say happy easter? Easter has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity. I traced its roots all the way back to a heathen god that was condemned in the Old Testament. I tell people this and they just don't care. They still go out and put up easter bunnies and easter eggs. I am completely unable to understand this. Does the truth matter to anyone?
Thank you! Couldn't agree more!
DeleteI am celebrating the resurrection of the savior. What is important is the spirit of the celebration. Only God knows our heart and what our intentions are.
ReplyDeleteIf your concern is the name "Easter" being of Pagan decent, then you should be concerned with half of your vocabulary. You are being silly and stubborn if you are going to pretend that I was meaning "Praise the Goddess Eostre" when I said "Happy Easter". However, I agree that we should not allow pagan and satanic rituals to be injected in to a sacred holiday.
Like I said, only God knows our heart. My mind was on Christ's sacrifice on Easter. Evidently the editors at Google's weren't.
Do you believe that God created everything? Including the planets Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Mars, etc.? If you do, then do you believe that your God created these other Gods? No, of course not. That just happens to be what we named them. When you say "God created Mars" you do not mean "God created the God of War".
ReplyDeleteWell said, ToeJamm.
ReplyDeleteIt was The Church's own decision to continue to use the name 'Easter', though I would like to hear an explanation of their rationale for doing so. Most European languages use a form of 'Pascha', which I think is related to 'Passover', but am not sure.
Our celebration of Easter (both the date and what is being celebrated) has not much to do with the Anglo-Saxon Easter (the most that could be said is that they are both celebrating a renewal in a sense, ie Spring/Resurrection connection could be made). The date we celebrate is tied directly to Christendom's day for celebration (related to Passover, as we all know), and not to whatever day the Anglo-Saxons celebrated Easter.
But notice how important conversion of the Germanic tribes was to The Church: the two greatest Christian holidays are layed over two Germanic holidays: Easter and Christmas (Yule). The day for Easter is determined by Passover, so it's the name and customs of the Germanic (specifically Anglo-Saxon) holiday that remain there, but for Christmas, the day itself, as well as many of the customs, as well as terminology (Yuletide) survive along with the Christian aspect of the holiday. The date of Christ's birth is not known. It was a conscious decision of the early Church to use the Germanic holiday of Yule as the time to celebrate Christ's birth.
Using those days doesn't make observation of them any less relevent. It was probably a very good marketing/Evangalizing technique by the early church to win over the Germanic tribes.
Oh yeah, and Google sucks for doing what they did. They do this kind of thing routinely too.
ReplyDeleteI agree that google sucks. It has close relationship with government and the Obama administration.
ReplyDeleteI agree that most Christians when they celebrate Easter they are celebrating the resurrection of Christ, but. why do we name the most sacred day in Christianity after a pagan god whose roots can be traced back to a heathen god in the Old Testament that was condemned? The one time that Easter appears in the New Testament, it is a mistranslation of the Greek word pascha or Passover. Most of the newer translations of the bible, which I don't like, translate pascha to Passover. Early Christians celebrated Passover. Calling Passover Easter is like celebrating an anniversary with your wife and brining along someone that you had an affair with to celebrate this anniversary. Also calling Passover Easter prevents one from seeing the true meaning of the highest day in Christianity. You don't go back and look at what happened in Egypt with the first Passover as stated the Old Testament. At least in Christimas it is named after Christ and not Yulemass. And the bible does talk about Christmas trees, and God often likens Himself to a tree, He is like an evergreen tree.
Planets are not sacred days in the Christianity.
I just can not understand how the Christian community calls Passover Easter. I remember being a kid and wondering what does bunnies and eggs have to do with the resurrection of Christ. It is paganism that has crept into the Church. What other doctrines that have no basis in the Bible have crept into Christianity.
Jeff, remember, it's only the English-speaking world that calls the holiday Easter. The rest of Christendom doesn't.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the god(dess) herself, see this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eostre
It's Germanic, not from an Old Testament mistranslation, but from an actual Anglo-Saxon pagan holiday that is attested to by the Venerable Bede.
I agree that it's curious that the name has hung on though.
The Greek word that Easter is translated from means Passover. When this Greek word is used in other parts of the New Testament, it is translated Passover. The church adopted elements of Easter to help convert pagans or non Christians.
ReplyDeleteYes, Easter came from Eostre which is turn can be traced back to the Astarte or Ashtoreth, it means star, or queen of heaven of the Old Testament. In the website you give:
"Ēostre derives from Proto-Germanic *Austrō, ultimately from a PIE root *h₂ewes- (→ *awes-), 'to shine', and therefore closely related to a reconstructed name of *h₂ewsṓs, the dawn goddess, which would account for Greek 'Eos', Roman 'Aurora', and Indian 'Ushas'." Eostre is Eos.
If you look up Aphrodite, Roman equivalent is Venus, on wiki it says this: "According to this interpretation, the name is from aphrós "foam" and déatai '[she] seems' or 'shines' (infinitive form *déasthai[6]), meaning 'she who shines from the foam [ocean]', a byname of the dawn goddess (Eos)." Byname Eos.
In "The Oxford Companion To World Mythology" pg. 35 it says: "Astarte, called Ashtoreth in the Hebrew Bible, associated with evening and morning star/moon. Astarte has mythological 'sister' not only in such diverse fertility figures as [...] also in Aphrodite and Artemis in Greece."
Also "I have no doubt that the name itself[Ashtoreth], the origin of which was long a matter of inquiry, is the same as the syriac [Hebrew charcters] star; specially the planet Venus, the goddess of love and fortune..."
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H6253&t=KJV
Also on the entry of Astarte in wikipedia:
Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. She has been known as the deified evening star. Astarte (Ishtar) was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite or, alternatively, Artemis. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname."
Eostre to Eos to Aphrodite, same as Venus, to Astarte/Ashtoreth.
Associated with the goddess Eostre, Eos, Aphrodite, Venus, Ashtoreth is the worship of the morning star or the planet Venus. The planet Venus is the 3rd brightest object is the sky. Interestingly, Christ is called the morning star and Lucifer means morning star.
Even if there is no direct connection between Easter and Ashtoreth, they are basically the same thing. The worship of the queen of heaven or Ashtoreth is condemned in the Bible. And here it is in the church today on the most sacred day in Christianity.
It seems very obivious to me that Easter has no place in Chrisitanity.
I do not understand how pastors or leaders of churches can not do basic research and realize that Easter has no place in Christianity.
ReplyDeleteI think we are all doing some great Google searches to find these facts. But...wait...we aren't supposed to be using Google!!!!!
ReplyDeleteA good discussion about an interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteUhm, I use Bing for my searches!
Jeff, yes there is a relationship as you describe between Eastre and the other Indo-European goddesses as you detail above (and as I linked to). This is a fascinating linguistic glimpse into the links we have to all other Indo-European peoples. But that relationship has nothing to do with the reason we call Easter Easter. It has to do with the holiday still being called that in Anglo-Saxon England when the Anglo-Saxons were being converted to Christianity and them continuing to hold on to the name, with the acquiescence of the church hierarchy evidently. Christian missionairies didn't run into this issue anywhere else. Notice what Bede says:
"Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance."
He was writing this in the early 700s about a time that ended about 100 years before him. Basically, the Anglo-Saxons continued to call it the name they had called it before conversion. Church authorities (surprisingly to me) didn't have a problem with it then. I'm not sure that we should have a problem with it now (I know I don't, I actually find it neat to have a link to our very remote past, and it doesn't interfere at all with my appreciation and celebration of the resurrection of Christ. I do see your point and can understand why a person would have a problem with it though.
I use Yahoo.
ReplyDeleteIt is not just a linguistic link, Bud-D. All of these goddess are the personification of the morning star or the planet Venus and have worship associated with it that has sexual eliminates involved in this worship. Easter bunnies has crept in along with the eggs, the cakes mentioned in Jeremiah 7:18, and the Easter sunrise service mentioned in Ezekiel 8. This worship is condemned in the Bible, Jeremiah 7:18 Jeremiah 44:18, Ezekiel 8. Plain and simple. It is not just some cute fascinating linguistic link. But I guess mocking Christianity in movies like "Life of Brian" is hilarious so mocking the highest day in Christianity brings a little comedy into a solemn day. Paganism has crept into the highest day in Christianity. It is an abomination.
I simply do not understand how people can continue to call Passover Easter, especially when they see the direct link of Easter to what was condemned in the Bible. Easter is a obvious mistranslation of the Greek word Pascha. It should be Passover. Does the truth matter to anyone? Why continue to call Passover a name of a goddess than can be traced to a heathen god in the Old Testament that was condemned. I can not relate to this or understand this at all.
Thankfully, Christians don't let those things creep in to their celebration.
DeleteUnfortunately they do completely unaware of it. Hot cross buns like cakes in Jeremiah 7:18. The Easter sunrise service just like in Esekiel 8: 14-16. Check out Tammuz and Shaphan in 8:11. Yeah most Christians don't realize it and you could say that it doesn't matter, but it is still there.
ReplyDelete