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In part one of this series I noted that for approximately one-half of professing Christendom Easter is a one day affair.  However, for the other half the Easter Season begins several weeks before Easter Sunday with the arrival of the Lenten Season.  “Lent” means either “count 40” or “spring,” depending whom one asks.  The observance of Lent is based on the belief that Tammuz (Eze. 8:14)–the miraculously conceived son of the sun god (Nimrod) and his wife/mother Semiramus (Ishtar/Easter/Queen of Heaven)–was supposedly killed by a wild boar at the age of 40.  The 40 days of sacrificing of a food or drink pleasure (a “fast”) symbolizes the 40 years of his life.  As noted earlier, he supposedly returned each year on his birthday (Dec. 25) with presents for his followers which he placed under a tree placed in their houses (Jer. 10:3-5).  Sound familiar?  According to some 2 1/2 billion people living today, he’s still doing it under an alias–Santa Claus.

According to Antiquities of the Christian Church, Lent was not celebrated by “the church” until 571 A.D.  For many years prior to that time the priesthood had been gradually turning the church away from the Holy Scriptures as the only legitimate standard of right and wrong.  Having rejected the Lord’s Word, the priesthood went to work further separating the apostates from God’s influence by rewriting the Holy Scriptures, being careful to keep enough of them in play so as to maintain a measure of religious legitimacy.  As stated in Antiquities: “As long as the perfection (demand for holiness) of the primitive (original) church remained inviolable (unchanged), there was no observance of Lent; but when men began to decline from the apostolical (apostles’) fervor of devotion (to holiness)” the priests initiated regular times and set rituals to observe in order for them to repent of their sins.  However, they were not to repent to God, but to the priests themselves.  By so doing the priests gave their parishioners the right to sin and get away with it.  They reserved for themselves the power to implement the process leading to forgiveness.  As history has shown, this has led to numerous atrocities.  Lent was one of the practices they initiated that made sin not merely acceptable, but unavoidable.  They used the Lenten ruse to replace the Lord’s Passover with a heathen celebration in honor of Ishtar–the “Queen of Heaven”/”Goddess of Fertility.”  In order to legitimize the holiday they included in it an observance of the resurrection of Jesus.

The Western world changed Ishtar’s name to Easter.  Collier’s Encyclopedia states that Lent is “admittedly not of Apostolic origin,” meaning that the observance was not taught by the apostles and played no part in the church established by Jesus Christ.  Such observances still play no part in God’s true church.  Collier’s added that “Lent has always been associated with the pagan Easter celebration.”  In Ecclesiastical History we find the following statement: “… the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the individual peculiarities (customs) of the peoples inasmuch as none of the apostles legislated on (spoke or wrote about) the matter …. the observance (of Easter) originated not by (apostolic) legislation, but as a custom (of the people).”   The evidence is clear, Easter is simply a convenient celebration designed to climax the end of the Lenten Season.  Both pagan observances are abominations in the eyes of God in that they are of Satanic origin.

The practice of Lent involves more than a springtime ritual which supposedly removes one past sins.  Placing ash on one’s forehead is a sign that one is doing penance for one’s sins.   The annual observance, along with the Mass, reveal the flippant, rebellious attitude held by both Catholics and Protestants toward the Word of God.  As any Catholic or Protestant “sinner saved by grace” will declare, obedience to God is not required for salvation and is, in fact, impossible.  Jesus Christ takes a totally different view of that supposed “truth.”  He said in Luke 10:16 that sin (rejection of His Word/Law–1 Jn. 3:4) reveals that the sinner “despises” both Jesus and His Father.  The Lenten ritual reveals a deeply-held, Satanic mindset toward the Lord’s command to obey His Word.  Because sin is believed to be as natural (and necessary) as breathing, Catholics claim that “My Lady (Mary) takes care of it (sin).”  This was a Catholic man’s explanation of how he could get away with adultery.  Not to be outdone, Protestants have come up with a “Lady” of their own who handles their inevitable, Adam-caused, “the devil made me do it” sins.  Her name is Grace.  In this way Protestants prove once again that the daughters have not wandered far from their mother (Rev. 17:1-5).

Lent did not originate with Christ or the early Church, but entered into the version of Christianity that existed throughout the Roman Empire in the second century, the same time that the Easter celebration came into vogue.  Lent has always been associated with Easter celebrations.  Archeologists have found artifacts that prove that the Lent-Easter theme was popular within some heathen societies 4000 years before the time of Christ.

Nowhere in the New Testament are Christians commanded to observe the resurrection, or birth, of Christ.  Instead, we are to memorialize His death (Lk. 22:19/1 Cor. 11:24,25), as did the early church.  The Lord’s true saints have never observed Lent and Easter which were borrowed from the Gentile (heathen) world.  We are commanded not to do as they did.  In Deuteronomy 12:30-32 we find God’s warning: “Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them (heathen), … Do not ask about their gods, about how they served them so that you can do likewise.  You must not do so unto the Lord your God, for every abomination, which He hates, they have done for their gods.”  The Prophet Jeremiah stated: “Learn not the ways of the heathen …. For the customs of the (heathen) people are vain ….” (10:2,3).  The Apostle Paul forbad the churches to observe such “times” and “seasons” (Gal. 4:9,10).  We are commanded to abstain from “ALL APPEARANCE of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22).  Doing what God strictly forbids goes far beyond APPEARANCE, it is evil, pure and simple.  Paul warns in Romans 6:23 that the end result of evil is death.

In Scripture God condemns any celebration in honor of the “Queen of Heaven.”  In connection with the Easter celebration, He specifically condemns “Sunrise Services” (Eze. 8:13-16) and the making of “hot cross buns” (Jer. 7:18-20; 44:19).  Sunrise Services eulogized the resurrection of Tammuz, whom the church changed to Jesus in order to legitimize the activity.  Admittedly, I have attended a number of such services.  I thank God He showed me the error of my ways and gave me enough sense to listen to Him.

The word “Easter” appears only one time in the Scriptures (Acts 12:4) where it is mistranslated from the word “Pascha,” which is Greek for “Passover.”  One will find this information in the side bars of the more complete printings of the King James Bible.

As we approach the God-ordained celebration of Passover we must understand the Lent-Easter celebration of a counterfeit christ and the temporary sin fix which He supposedly offers.  If one finds sin in this heart, he must face it in a state of “godly sorrow with (true) repentance … and not the “sorrow of the world that only works death” (2 Cor. 7:10).  “Worldly sorrow” is simply recognition of what one has done, being sorry for it, but knowing that one will do the same thing again, and again, and again ….  Worldly (temporary) sorrow brings death because it is an admission that 1) more sin is on the way and 2) the observance is designed to affect a quick, temporary fix which frees the guilty party to sin with reckless abandon until the next fix.  A series of Masses plug the spiritual holes between Lenten Seasons.  As one woman told my daughter after observing a Mass, “Well, I’m good for another week,” meaning another seven days of sin which she would unload on the Lord at the next Mass, following which she will be “good for another week.”  Protestants are no different in that they have their version of Mass each Sun god worshiping day (Sunday).  Repeated sin-repentance cycles do not result in forgiveness because God knows one’s heart.  He knows that such a one has no intention of obeying His Word which is necessary for salvation.  The serial sinner is not being forgiven at each Mass, each church meeting, each Lenten Season, each Easter Sunday or Sunrise Service.  In fact, the serial sinner is storing (“treasuring”) up his sins until (“against”) the day of judgment (Rom. 2:5).  True godly sorrow eventually produces eternal life because it results in ridding the saint of all sin and empowers him to keep sin out of his life.  Read Romans 5:21 and 6:22.  L.J.